`THE DEAD' COMES ALIVE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Staff Writer

Practically all of the news about ``James Joyce's The Dead'' is good, and that is surely a relief.

Yes, the notices out of New York have been glowing, but it's nevertheless impossible to approach this audaciously conceived production - the nerve, after all, of turning the greatest short story in the English language into a Broadway musical - without the bias that it had better prove its worthiness every stomping Irish step of the way.

Even though there is a stumble or two, primarily in the misplacement of a few key story elements, the musical achieves such lyrical warmth and touching sentiment that even the most indoctrinated Joyceans will have to admit sheer enjoyment can be a fine substitute for literary rigor.

Not that the stage ``Dead'' is even on the same dimensional Emerald Isle as something like ``Riverdance.'' To be blunt, it radiates authenticity. Director Richard Nelson's musical is scrupulously faithful to the story's concerns with universality and isolation, constancy and change, camaraderie and the impossibility of truly knowing the most loved of intimates.

The songs, which were composed by Shaun Davey with lyrics by him and Nelson, share a common delicate beauty though each is inspired by a wide range of distinct influences, from regional airs to grand opera, lullabies, music hall romps, Joyce's own prose and, in the case of the defiantly energetic showstopper ``Wake the Dead,'' Celtic rhythms primordial enough to scare any Lord of the Dance right out of his sequins.

Perhaps the show's greatest triumph is the way it brings the story's take on melancholy-tinged Irish hospitality to glowing life. For the longest time, we feel like honored guests at the music-loving Morkan ladies' annual Christmastime party, somewhere around 100 years ago. On a simple, utile stage that converts effortlessly from Edwardian parlor to dining, bed and hotel rooms, the elderly sisters Julia (Sally Ann Howe, who pivots from losing to grasping at life with exquisite timing) and Kate (Marni Nixon, who sang for Audrey Hepburn in the ``My Fair Lady'' movie) and their niece Mary Jane (Donna Lynne Champlin) host a cheerful evening of singing and dancing.

Nelson's staging enhances the participatory illusion by literally having his players turn their backs on the audience and sing to their fellow actors. And a cordial lot they are: lovable lush Freddy Malins (the remarkably elastic Stephen Spinella) and his disapproving old mum (Patricia Kilgarriff); provocative, patriotic young Molly Ivers (Alice Ripley); the teasingly reluctant tenor Bartell D'Arcy (John Kelly), who when he finally gives full voice reveals what it takes to make angels cry; and others, all well met.

But most importantly, there's that happily complacent couple, Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. He is played by Stephen Bogardus, she by Faith Prince, both delightful singers and actors of arresting presence. Bogardus serves as an occasional narrator as well as Gabriel, which is fine since his inner life is ``The Dead's'' beating heart.

But lost in the translation from story to stage is the foreshadowing of Gabriel's self-doubt, and this noticeably takes away from the devastating impact when he realizes that the party in his head is as irretrievably over as the one recently concluded at his aunts'.

Perhaps an epiphany as sad and transcendent as Gabriel's can only have its greatest effect in literature, where readers can invest the words with the imaginative weight of their interpretations.

However, what cannot be done in print that ``James Joyce's The Dead'' does magnificently is transport us to a place where shared song expresses all that needs to be considered for those gossamer moments until the music ends.

The facts

--What: ``James Joyce's The Dead.''

--Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown.

--When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; through Sept. 3. Call for exceptions and additional show times.

--How much: $25 to $70. Call [phone].

--Our rating: Three and one half stars.

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Photo:

The merriment continues during the party that is the centerpiece of ``James Joyce's The Dead,'' now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer